Alebrijes – Folk Art From Oaxaca, Mexico

January 2, 2009

Alebrijes are carved folk art figures from Oaxaca Mexico. Alebrijes originated in the 1930’s and were created by artist Pedro Linares. Linares fell ill and said that the brightly colored figures came to him in a dream during his illness. Below are some beautiful carvings by some of my favorite alebrije artists that I found on El Caracol Zapoteca and Ebay.

Linares created a different kind of alebrijes. His alebrijes were made of paper mache and were the result of nightmares he had while he was sick in Mexico City. He then returned home to Arrazola, Oaxaca and spoke of his alebrijes to artisans there, who morphed his tradition into their own, using wood (usually copal wood) to create alebrijes instead of paper mache. The photos you see here are Oaxacan alebrijes made of wood and are from the towns of Arrazola and San Martin Tilcajete.
To read more about how Oaxacan alebrijes are made, please check out my blog! I will be updating it regularly with information such as this and photos of Oaxacan alebrijes! Whitney

Incredible! Such beautiful art and the skill to create such sculptures is unbelievable. Thank you for posting these pictures. I have re-blogged this over at http://mexicoart.org. Please stop by and leave a comment, I would love to get your incite. Are you familiar with other Mexican folk art such as figurines or pottery?

[…] Alebrijes are carved folk art figures from Oaxaca Mexico. Alebrijes originated in the 1930's and were created by artist Pedro Linares. Linares fell ill and said that the brightly colored figures came to him in a dream during his illness. Below are some beautiful carvings by some of my favorite alebrije artists that I found on El Caracol Zapoteca and Ebay.